Workplace Safety and Insurance Board

Hurt at work? Less pain, more claims.

Or: bringing government insurance to the modern era

Dealing with the fallout of an injury while following up with an insurance claim can be a daunting prospect. I was part of an ambitious project exploring what a mobile app could bring to the WSIB experience, and how it could improve the lives of over 5 million Ontario workers.

Getting compensated for workplace injury should be a simple, painless process; here was our approach.

My Role

Product strategy, User research, Product design

Team

2 leads

5 designers

6 developers

2 communications

Timeline

2022

Tools

Figma, Miro, ProtoPie, Maze

Highlights

Onboarding Flow

The app guides them to immediately reporting an injury or accessing an existing claim.

Injury Reporting

The app provides an easy, streamlined approach on how to submit your injury claim- it's essential to complete this form immediately following your injury. Tips are included when appropriate.

Action items

Actions required to be completed, such as appointments, meetings, and forms would be listed on the app.

Messaging

Many users found communication with WSIB difficult as it could only be done via phone call. The messaging feature allows for flexibility and ease of communication with claim managers.

Discover

The Problem

The initial problem space of this project was very open ended; we started off with no specific goals or features in place.

We were posed the challenge of determining what a possible WSIB mobile app would look like, and how to best enhance their experience with technology.

Our first step was to gain insight on our users and discover their needs and pain points.

Discover

User Research

We had the following research goals for our project:

Gain a holistic sense of how users go through the current claims process itself, the issues they experience, and where a mobile app could support actions during it.
To develop an understanding of user pain points experienced when using similar insurance mobile applications.
Understand user’s perception of a mobile app and whether or not there is a need/demand for the product and how to encourage adoption.

We had the following research goals for our project:

Gain a holistic sense of how users go through the current claims process itself, the issues they experience, and where a mobile app could support actions during it.
To develop an understanding of user pain points experienced when using similar insurance mobile applications.
Understand user’s perception of a mobile app and whether or not there is a need/demand for the product and how to encourage adoption.

Monitoring Online Discussion

We compiled online discussion from forums and related groups about the WSIB claims process; it gave us insight for the common problems, questions, and knowledge gaps of users. From our observations, the major issues boiled down to:

People found communication with WSIB to be difficult at times; calling was often their only option
Those who submitted claims faced uncertainty of their responsibilities/actions required
People were at a very vulnerable stage in their lives- they often had challenges juggling logistics and keeping WSIB updated while healing from their injury

People found communication with WSIB to be difficult at times; calling was often their only option
Those who submitted claims faced uncertainty of their responsibilities/actions required
People were at a very vulnerable stage in their lives- they often had challenges juggling logistics and keeping WSIB updated while healing from their injury

“I was injured 2 days ago, and I’m frustrated. I’m not sure who to send stuff to or what to send”

Competitor Feedback + Competitive Analysis

We compiled relevant google play and apple store reviews of other insurance apps, grouping ones on the same topic.

For example, users were often frustrated they needed to use the web to search for resources on what supporting documents to upload, which sometimes caused them to lose their progress. Thus, we included an auto-save feature, as well as making sure to have all relevant information/tips available when they were needed.

"Submitting claims is a chore. There’s so much guesswork to ensure you’re submitting properly"

Discover

User Interviews

To gain a further understanding of the problem space, we conducted 10 user interviews, lasting approximately 45 minutes each. I conduced 3 of them.

“We would have appreciated an estimated time of when it might get done, as it was very challenging to not have compensation during COVID"

When screening for participants, we were focusing on people whose demographics aligned with those who received coverage from WSIB; they lived in Ontario, their occupation was an insured industry (construction, agriculture, manufacturing etc.), and they had their own experience of submitting insurance claims.

From our interview results, we we conducted a thematic analysis of reoccurring threads that we saw in interview responses. For each theme, we came up with associated features and actions to ensure they impacted our design. Themes included:

‍Transparency: users desire easily accessible information on the status and progress of their claim, documentation and records of communications with WSIB
Trust: it is important to establish trust throughout the claims process. Responses indicate that users have a negative impression of insurance companies based on their own experiences or what they have heard from friends and family who have previously filed claims.
A Human Touch: People tend to lack trust in purely digital/automated process; calling or directly speaking to a person is seen as a more reliable mean of gathering information.

‍Transparency: users desire easily accessible information on the status and progress of their claim, documentation and records of communications with WSIB
Trust: it is important to establish trust throughout the claims process. Responses indicate that users have a negative impression of insurance companies based on their own experiences or what they have heard from friends and family who have previously filed claims.
A Human Touch: People tend to lack trust in purely digital/automated process; calling or directly speaking to a person is seen as a more reliable mean of gathering information.

Design

The Design Process

We used the Double Diamond approach to guide our design process. After researching user needs and defining our core principles and the main problems, created and tested solutions, leading to a final prototype based on user feedback.

Design

Exploration and Iteration

This was the overall design process, using the homepage as an example. A similar process was followed for all areas of the app.

Sketches and Low-Fidelity Prototypes

Each team member developed their own ideas, which we then shared and discussed as a group. The two concepts at the bottom are mine.

Early Homepage Design

Usability Testing

Our testing objective was to evaluate the core functionality and navigation of the MVP prototype screens, and identify areas where users experience confusion with the current layout. It was conducted using both moderated and unmoderated methods:

Unmoderated Tests (via Maze):
Users were asked to complete specific tasks within the high-fidelity prototype. Insights were gathered by analyzing heat maps, user flows, time spent on tasks, and the frequency of mis-clicks.
Moderated Tests (via Google Meet):
Participants completed tasks while sharing their screen and verbalizing their thought process. This helped uncover usability issues and gather real-time feedback on user behavior.

Unmoderated Tests (via Maze):
Users were asked to complete specific tasks within the high-fidelity prototype. Insights were gathered by analyzing heat maps, user flows, time spent on tasks, and the frequency of mis-clicks.
Moderated Tests (via Google Meet):
Participants completed tasks while sharing their screen and verbalizing their thought process. This helped uncover usability issues and gather real-time feedback on user behavior.

Final Homepage design

Changes include improving the information hierarchy, changing the visual design of elements to appear more clickable, and simplifying the design of the action items to resemble a checklist.

Result

Product Snapshot

Here’s an abridged version of our final prototype.

Retrospective

Where are we now?

We closed off this project by pitching our proof of concept to company stakeholders, alongside our completed MVP prototype. Our team ensured to document our insights and possible extended features for future cohorts to pick up where we left off.

This project was created in parallel to the actual WSIB mobile app project created by a contracting company, and the ideal scenario was that they would create the app based off or inspired by what we had created.

Final Thoughts

Watch out for Feature Creep: It can be tempting, for a UX designer, to want to address every single issue or problem users encounter in their product. In reality, most of the times you’ll only have the time and resources for a select few, so you need to prioritize which features/fixes take precedent.

Trapped in Endless iteration: “Don’t let perfection get in the way of progress” is a quote that I now stand by. There were many points where we hit a point of stagnation trying to polish the perfect interview script, or perfect look of a screen or visual element. It’s important to recognize when you’ve hit a plateau, and when moving on could be a better use of your time.

Next Project: Making AI Agent Building Intuitive

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